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Monday, June 20, 2011

Texas lawmakers will reconsider a bill that would criminalize ‘enhanced pat downs’ by Transportation Security Administration agents at the state’s airports, after Gov. Rick Perry placed the item on the agenda for the current special session of the legislature following intense pressure from conservatives and tea party groups.

“I am grateful that the governor heard the calls of the people demanding that lawmakers stand up for the liberties of Texans,” said Wesley Strackbein, a conservative activist and founder of' TSA Tyranny.com'. Strackbein Saturday traveled to New Orleans to confront Perry at a book signing event and demand that the item be placed on the legislative agenda.

The bill would make it the crime of official oppression, a Class A misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in prison of a $4,000 fine, for a TSA agent to ‘touch the anus, sexual organ, buttocks, or breast of another person, even thought that person’s clothing’ for the purpose of ‘granting access to a building or a form of transportation.’

The measure passed the Texas House during the regular session but was pulled off the floor without a vote during the regular session after U.S. Attorney John Murphy circulated a letter to Senators warning that the TSA has the authority to prevent airplanes from taking off from Texas airports if the agency cannot certify that they are safe.

The bill’s chief sponsor, freshman State Representative David Simpson, says he has the support needed to pass the bill, pointing out that 121 of the 181 members of the Texas Legislature, Democrat and Republican, have signed on as co sponsors.